Oooh, I just got Game of Thrones from the local video shop. Hired, I mean. I'm watching it very very soon. And yes, I have it for a week. Just long enough to watch the episodes, and maybe the special features. Hopefully, enough to whet my appetite come my birthday, when I'm getting it for real.

Just watched the first two episodes (Winter is Coming and The Kingsroad) with my mother. I think it's awesome (and I don't use that word lightly or often). My mother enjoyed it too, save for the bit with the White Walkers/Others at the start. She was wondering whether the rest of the series would be the same, and was thankfully proved wrong by the rest of the episodes we watched.

I'm rationing my watching of the series, though. Dunno whether it's because of the Coke I drank earlier, but I'm almost too excited after watching the show.

Quatermass wrote:Dunno whether it's because of the Coke I drank earlier, but I'm almost too excited after watching the show.

I'm guessing it's because of all the incest

...

Not that kind of excitement.

We're talking caffeine-fuelled fanboyism. As Adam Savage once said, I'm gonna have to have a grinectomy.

Anyway, just watched the third episode, Lord Snow, despite what I said earlier. Watching this series is like seeing a Who's Who of British acting. From Doctor Who alone, I've spotted Julian Glover, Harry Lloyd, Donald Sumpter, the late Margaret John ( ), Owen Teale, and Iain Glen. And of course there's Sean Bean, Lena Headey and Peter Vaughn. And Charles 'Lord Vetinari/Tulkinghorn' Dance is in it later as Tywin Lannister. I love playing 'spot the actor' in these shows.

The episode itself...I have to say that I'm continually impressed by the fidelity of the adaptation, and how well they put it onto the screen. Words fail me. I'm not saying it's perfect. But it's one of the most impressive adaptations I have ever seen that actually remains extremely close to the book, and there's only one other adaptation that I know of offhand that maintains both extreme fidelity and quality. That's the 1984 version of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

BTW, I just spotted an interesting Easter Egg in the titles, seeing them on a TV screen for the first time. I dunno whether anyone else has noticed, but if you pay attention to the actor's names, the symbol next to their credit is the emblem of the relevant house. You know, direwolves for Starks, dragons for Targaryens, stags for Baratheons, and lions for the Lannisters.

Q or anyone else. What are the Extras like on the DVD. I have the series recorded on a harddrive but I'm still tempted to buy this as I loved the series and If there are a decent amount of extras available on it i might splurge out

'There is no future for e-books, because they are not books. E-books smell like burned fuel.'Ray Bradbury (RIP)

pip wrote:Q or anyone else. What are the Extras like on the DVD. I have the series recorded on a harddrive but I'm still tempted to buy this as I loved the series and If there are a decent amount of extras available on it i might splurge out

The first disc has character profiles. In other words, I think they're the actor interviews about their characters you can find on the internet. There's also supposedly a 30-minute doco on the making of the series, an interactive guide to Westeros, a doco on the title sequence, another doco on how the book was adapted, another on the Night's Watch, and yet another on the creation of the Dothraki language. And there's commentaries on seven of the episodes.

No deleted scenes, though. But then again, I read on Wikipedia that almost every scene scripted was filmed.

One notable criticism. Is it me, or is Lysa Arryn more batsh** crazy in this adaptation than she was in the book? I got the impression that she was a little less shrill, and more like an overprotective mother with cracks in her sanity in the book. I know she goes batsh** crazy overtly in A Storm of Swords, but I didn't think it showed so much. It's like the difference between Anthony Ainley (in Survival in particular) and John Simm as the Master.

Have to say that my favourite bit was when Viserys finally got what was coming to him. Only complaint about that sequence? The gold pouring onto Viserys looked fake, like it was CGI. Should have done what they did in the book and basically put Viserys' head into the cauldron.

One notable criticism. Is it me, or is Lysa Arryn more batsh** crazy in this adaptation than she was in the book? I got the impression that she was a little less shrill, and more like an overprotective mother with cracks in her sanity in the book. I know she goes batsh** crazy overtly in A Storm of Swords, but I didn't think it showed so much. It's like the difference between Anthony Ainley (in Survival in particular) and John Simm as the Master.

Have to say that my favourite bit was when Viserys finally got what was coming to him. Only complaint about that sequence? The gold pouring onto Viserys looked fake, like it was CGI. Should have done what they did in the book and basically put Viserys' head into the cauldron.

I think Lysa is played with the knowledge that she's completely bonkers in the later books . I f she was played as she is portrayed in GoT alone it could have been a bit more subtle .

'There is no future for e-books, because they are not books. E-books smell like burned fuel.'Ray Bradbury (RIP)

Quatermass wrote:One notable criticism. Is it me, or is Lysa Arryn more batsh** crazy in this adaptation than she was in the book? I got the impression that she was a little less shrill, and more like an overprotective mother with cracks in her sanity in the book. I know she goes batsh** crazy overtly in A Storm of Swords, but I didn't think it showed so much. It's like the difference between Anthony Ainley (in Survival in particular) and John Simm as the Master.

I think Lysa is played with the knowledge that she's completely bonkers in the later books . I f she was played as she is portrayed in GoT alone it could have been a bit more subtle .

Glad to see it wasn't me. I'll have to re-read the book, though. But after what she does to Sansa later in the books, I think Littlefinger's actions, even if done for selfish reasons, feel justified. I actually felt deeply sorry for poor Sansa by that point. I mean (spoilers follow...)

On Littlefinger's orders, she (Lysa, I mean) poisoned her own husband. Granted, not sure what Jon Arryn was really like. She breastfeeds her own son at six in the novel, and some age about 8-10 in the show. She hates her sister and her offspring, probably because Littlefinger prefers Catelyn, and nearly throws Sansa down a mountain when she sees Littlefinger grooming Sansa to be a Catelyn substitute. She seems altogether too eager to put people into the Eyrie's sky cells, which are frankly one of the most sadistic prison cells since the Black Hole of Calcutta.

Quite frankly, a long drop and a sudden stop, courtesy of Littlefinger, is too good for her.

Watched the seventh episode, You Win or You Die. I believe the term 'interesting times' applies.

Last edited by Quatermass on Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

She is a twisted character all right. Shame they didn't leave the element of subtlety to develop over the next few series though. Currently 600 pages into A DAnce with Dragons so a lot of it's still fresh in my head from the earlier books

'There is no future for e-books, because they are not books. E-books smell like burned fuel.'Ray Bradbury (RIP)